Many wise triathletes including Dave Scott and Paula Newby-Fraser have come out as advocates of low carb/high fat diets like Keto. I’ve seen a lot of benefits myself including getting to race weight months before racing season without having to count calories, increase in energy, and absence of “bonking” throughout the day. These are all great things but is it possible to race on a HF/LC diet? Does anyone have experience fueling hard workouts or races with carbs while on a HF/LC diet? Is there a way to maximize keto benefits while overcoming the negatives?
Benefits:
Quick fat loss
Increase in energy
More stable energy throughout the day
More stable energy during training at low-moderate intensities
Negatives:
Unable to fuel an entire Ironman with fat stores
Lack of cellular sugars makes FTP+ workouts more difficult/impossible
Metabolically Ironman is a managed bankruptcy when maximal performance is the goal.
If the partaking at a low level of intensity is the goal say, grossly, 50% maximal effort, then maybe just maybe, there is a case to consider a less glycogen biased fuelling/training strategy.
I have done two full distance Ironman this year on UCAN superstarch. This is not entirly Keto but quite close to it. I felt great with it, never hungry, no stomach upsets.
Read Ben Greenfield’ s take on Ketosis for Ironman.
Thanks for the info! I was hoping for this kind of research.
Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence such as…
“I use a HF/LC diet to get down to race weight and then switch to a high carb diet”
“I use HF/LC supplemented by carbs at key times to keep the body in a state of ketosis while still utilizing carbs”
“I tried HF/LC and saw a dramatic loss in performance”
I did keto about a year and a half ago and I lost about 15 lbs. Then I randomly saw a large spike in weight about 3 months in. I gave it up because it was putting me in a shitty mood. Did race tris on it though FWIW.
Thanks for the info! I was hoping for this kind of research.
Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence such as…
“I use a HF/LC diet to get down to race weight and then switch to a high carb diet”
“I use HF/LC supplemented by carbs at key times to keep the body in a state of ketosis while still utilizing carbs”
“I tried HF/LC and saw a dramatic loss in performance”
I tried a ketogenic diet years ago before I was into sport and found it great for losing weight. I have tried it since and I just can’t manage it whilst running.
I found this blog about runnung whilst in Ketosis, it sounds like he gave it a good go, but couldn’t make it work either, he also saw a drop off in performance. http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Ketogenic_Experiment